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Please STOP trying to raise your ferritin with ferrous sulfate. I know that sounds crazy. Your doctor prescribed it. It's supposed to help. But I spent 7 months on prescribed ferrous sulfate and all I got was a destroyed stomach and hair that kept on falling out. I mean my hair was coming out everywhere. Not just in the shower — on my pillow, on my clothes, on the back of my chair at work. I'd run my fingers through it and strands would just release. My temples were thinning. My ponytail holders didn't need to be wrapped as many times anymore. I noticed my hair was drying faster after showers. It took me a while to realize why — there was less of it. And the exhaustion. It wasn't normal tired. It was that next-level tired where your bones feel heavy and getting up to shower feels like a full workout. Some days it felt like I was walking through quicksand. Standing up to make a sandwich had my heart racing. Grocery shopping left me winded. I thought I was just a low energy person. I told myself I was lazy. That something was fundamentally wrong with me. I became the mom who couldn't keep up. The wife who was always on the couch. The friend who always cancels. I was barely living. I was surviving. So I got my blood tested and my ferritin came back at 13. Extremely low. No surprise there. My doctor prescribed ferrous sulfate. 325mg twice a day with vitamin C. The standard protocol. I thought: okay, this is good. I know what's wrong. I have the prescription. This will fix it. By week two my stomach was wrecked. Constipation so bad I was in pain. Nausea every morning. But I kept taking it. Every single day. For three months. Then I got tested. Ferritin: 16. Three points. Three months of stomach hell. Still losing hair. Still exhausted. I went back to my doctor. Told her the side effects were unbearable. Told her my ferritin had barely moved. Begged her for an alternative. She said there wasn't one. Said I should expect these side effects. Said some people just don't tolerate iron well. Then she told me to take THREE pills a day instead of two. I tried everything else I could find. Took it on an empty stomach. Took it with food. Took it at night. Tried slow-release. Four more months. More stomach pain. More hair in my brush. More days on the couch unable to move. Seven months total. Ferritin: 18. That's when I started thinking something was seriously wrong with me. Not the iron. Me. Maybe I was one of those people who just couldn't absorb iron. Maybe my gut was damaged. Maybe this was just my body now. But something didn't add up. If the iron was absorbing, why was my stomach destroyed? And if it wasn't absorbing, why the hell was I still taking it and suffering through the side effects? One night at 2am I finally asked the right question. Not "how do I tolerate ferrous sulfate better" — but "why doesn't it work?" I found forums full of women with the exact same story. Months on ferrous sulfate. Stomach wrecked. Ferritin barely moving. Hair still falling out and no energy. So I dug into the research. A clinical study from Sweden showed that ferrous sulfate absorbs at approximately 15%. That's it. The other 85% sits in your gut, causing the constipation, the nausea, the pain. While your ferritin crawls up a few points at a time. That same research pointed to something else instead. Iron bisglycinate — a chelated form that's already broken down before it hits your gut. Studies showing dramatically higher absorption rates than ferrous sulfate, without the stomach issues. But that wasn't even the worst part. The studies showed that simply taking iron is ineffective. Your body has to STORE it as ferritin — to feed your hair follicles and give you energy. And to do that, you need the supporting cofactors: vitamin C, B6, B12, and folate. Vitamin C to force iron absorption, B6 and B12 to convert iron into ferritin, and folate to direct it to your hair follicles and muscles. Without them, iron has nowhere to go. Your ferritin barely moves. Your hair keeps falling out. You stay exhausted. I looked at my ferrous sulfate bottle. No vitamins. Just iron that couldn't absorb — and couldn't be stored. It's like filling a bathtub with the drain wide open. Doesn't matter how much you pour in. But here's why I'm so frustrated. This isn't new science. Iron bisglycinate has been studied for years as an alternative to ferrous sulfate. And the data on cofactors for iron storage has been around even longer. But doctors keep prescribing ferrous sulfate. Because it's cheap. Because it's what they learned decades ago in med school. Because the protocols have never been updated. I wasn't broken. The iron prescribed to me was. With this in mind, I went looking for a supplement that had everything — iron bisglycinate plus all the cofactors. Most had one or the other. None had both. After searching for about a week, I found one. Iron bisglycinate at a clinical dose. All four cofactors built in. Even lactoferrin and copper for extra absorption. It had hundreds of reviews from women with the same story — stomach fine, ferritin finally moving, hair coming back after taking it. I ordered it that night since I figured I had nothing to lose. Week 2: No stomach issues. No constipation. No nausea. I could take it on an empty stomach and feel nothing. After months of ferrous sulfate destroying my gut, I was surprised. Week 4: I wasn't hitting that 2pm wall anymore. I had energy I hadn't felt in years — not jittery, just... normal. I could climb stairs without getting winded. Week 6: Wash day came and went without the usual pile in the drain. My brush wasn't full of hair anymore. Something was different. Week 8: Baby hairs along my temple. Little pieces that stuck up when I pulled my hair back. The shedding had almost completely stopped. Week 12: I got tested. Ferritin: 74. 18 to 74 in twelve weeks. After seven months of ferrous sulfate got me 5 points. Seven months of stomach pain and hair loss and blaming myself. Seven months of thinking my body was broken. And the whole time, the problem was never me. My hair is now coming back. I can run my fingers through it without strands releasing. My ponytail needs to be wrapped more times again. The thin spots at my temples are filling in. And the exhaustion — that heaviness I'd accepted as just part of getting older — it's gone. I have energy to get through the day without crashing. I'm not dragging myself through afternoons anymore. I actually want to do things again. I wasn't lazy. I wasn't broken. I was depleted — by iron that was never going to work. If you're reading this and you see yourself — the problem's not you. It's the type of iron you're taking. I've linked what I now take below: https://nivara-shop.com/products/ferravital-ferritin-support Don't spend another month on iron that destroys your stomach and does nothing for your levels. Don't wait until you can see your scalp. Don't wait until you don't recognise yourself anymore. --- P.S. — Every month I spent on ferrous sulfate was a month my hair kept falling out and my body felt like lead. If I'd known about bisglycinate and cofactors sooner, I wouldn't have wasted seven months blaming myself.